Norway’s company Telenor registered a profit of nearly USD 1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2010, which represents an increase of more than 400 percent in relation to the USD 280-million result from the second quarter of 2009.  

The main factor responsible for the company’s good performance results was the contribution of Kyivstar assets to the new entity formed in the merger of Russian and Ukrainian companies of Telenor and the Russian-based Alfa Group.   

Telenor and Alfa Group finalized the merger of VimpelCom with Kyivstar in April of 2010. The new merged entity is VimpelCom Ltd., which continues to have VimpelCom’s NYSE listing. It is expected that Telenor will adjust its gains from the Kyivstar transaction. 

Telenor has received about USD 1.2 billion in profits from affiliated companies in the second quarter of 2010. By comparison, the company’s profit from its subsidiaries in the second quarter of 2009 stood at only USD 251 million. Current quarter 2 results do not yet include the performance assessment of VimpelCom Ltd.

Telenor’s revenues have increased in the first half of the year by 2.7 percent to USD 4.03 billion. EBITDA (before deductions for one-time expenses) went down by 11 percent to USD 1.1 billion. The EBITDA margin slid from 32.3 percent to 27.9 percent. The company’s capital outlays in the first half of the year were USD 530 million, up from USD 481 million in the second half of 2010.   

Telenor’s major assets are located in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and India. Following the merger of Kyivstar and VimpelCom, the Telenor holding became the owner of a 36-percent stake in VimpelCom Ltd.